Can an electric vehicle be powerful, cheap, and fun to drive? The answer to all three questions is yes in the 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV.
I took a test drive of Chevy’s all-electric mini car and let me say one thing – I was surprised by this EV.
The Department of Energy has just come out with a new round of $45 million in funding to improve the performance of EV batteries, along with other projects to reduce vehicle weight, improve efficiency and increase EV battery range. We’re not surprised to see sticky-tape expert 3M among the list … [continued]
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have discovered a pathway for developing low cost electric vehicle batteries, which could lead to a new generation of affordable EVs. The team has come up with a new nanostructured carbon-based catalyst that looks like something you’d mop up off … [continued]
Researchers at Stanford University are working on a new rechargeable zinc-air battery that could provide a low cost energy storage alternative to the current favorite, lithium-ion. Zinc-air batteries have great promise due to the cheapness and abundance of their basic materials along with a relatively high energy density, but until … [continued]
A new tool has been created by researchers at Purdue University that is able to detect flaws in lithium-ion batteries while they are still being manufactured, potentially greatly improving the quality and reliability of the batteries and also cutting down on waste/inefficiency. Specifically, the new tool is able to flag … [continued]
Cabot has developed a graphene-based additive called LITX™ G700 to improve the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. LITX™ G700 is a conductive graphene-based additive that is to improve conductivity and achieve a high energy density in lithium-ion batteries at “ultra-low loadings” in comparison to conventional additives. Lower volume additives offer the advantage … [continued]
For more than a decade, scientists have tried to improve lithium-based batteries by replacing the graphite in one terminal with silicon, which can store 10 times more charge. But after just a few charge/discharge cycles, the silicon structure would crack and crumble, rendering the battery useless. Now a team led … [continued]
One of the biggest challenges facing wind energy is intermittency. Wind often blows strongest when power demand is lowest, and weakest when electricity is needed the most. Because today’s power grid needs electricity to be consumed the moment it’s generated, that means wind turbines send energy to the grid half as often as an average coal plant.
What if wind farms could store the power that isn’t needed right away and sell it later when demand is high? energyNOW! correspondent Patty Kim visited an energy storage system built alongside a wind farm in the heart of coal country.
Range anxiety, or concerns about how far electric vehicles will travel on a single charge, is one of the biggest limitations facing the EV industry. In fact, a recent survey said only 20 percent of American drivers would consider buying an EV with a 100-mile range. But what if EVs could drive 500 miles on a single charge?
That’s exactly what one of America’s most innovative companies is working on. energyNOW! correspondent Josh Zepps looked under the hood of a next generation battery design that uses nanotechnology to make EVs more powerful than ever.
Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have constructed an improved energy-dense lithium-ion battery of tin and graphene.
